


O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do

by fortunehasgivenup



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Angst, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Forbidden Love, Happy Ending, Loss of Virginity, Rio Does Several Things the Pope Does Not Approve Of, Romeo & Juliet AU, Secret Relationship, Yearning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:15:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23295358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunehasgivenup/pseuds/fortunehasgivenup
Summary: Elizabeth is 19 when they hold her betrothal banquet. She's to marry Dean Boland before the year's end, but when she slips away for a moment of fresh air, a mysterious stranger steals her first kiss. She's intrigued by him, only to discover that he's the one man in the city that she should loathe with all her heart - Duke Velasquez, the head of the family that has been feuding with her own for generations. Unfortunately, love does not follow rules.(Romeo & Juliet AU, but with a happy ending.)
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Comments: 69
Kudos: 272





	O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do

**Author's Note:**

> Beth is wearing Lucrezia Borgia's costumes from The Borgias. Rio is wearing Cesare's black, non-priest, costumes. This is vaguely set in late 15th century Siena, but I have done zero research and had no interest in historical accuracy.
> 
> Note: While discussing whether or not they'll have sex, Rio tells Beth that he won't pull out.

Elizabeth is nineteen when they hold her betrothal banquet. She sucks in her stomach as her mother oversees the tightening of her laces, forcing out what little air she didn’t even realize was still in her lungs.

“I don’t love him,” she says when the maid leaves.

“You think I loved your father?” her mother replies, brushing soft red paint onto Beth’s lips. “Love has nothing to do with it, darling. His family is wealthy. We are allies against,” her mother purses her lips, “other families.”

She knows who her mother is referring to, but at this point, since the death of a second cousin only one month prior, it’s essentially become anathema to speak that name in the house.

Her mother sighs, setting aside the brush and cupping Beth’s chin to tilt her face back. “You’ll learn to love him. It just takes time to get used to someone.”

Beth doesn’t think that she’ll ever get used to Dean. 

She’s seated next to him as their parents make toasts. He isn’t the handsome prince of her childhood dreams, although having met a prince, Beth isn’t sure that she’d like a prince very much either. She accepts congratulations from every side every time that she so much as moves as inch.

It’s maddening.

“I can’t breathe,” she says to her best friend, Ruby.

Ruby glances around. “Wait until the dance ends and slip out onto the balcony,” she murmurs, nodding her head in the direction she means. “You should be able to get a few minutes of fresh air before someone comes looking for you.”

Beth squeezes Ruby’s hand in thanks and does just that.

The outside air, though warm, feels blessedly cool on her overheated skin. There’s even a slight breeze.

Beth leans against the stone wall of the balcony and shuts her eyes.

“Do your parents know you’ve run off?”

She snaps into high alert, tense at the man’s voice. She turns towards it as a man melts from the shadows. He’s dressed all in black, the first clue that he isn’t supposed to be here. No one invited to the banquet was wearing black.

He leans against the wall next to her and Beth’s head rears back as she stares at this…apparition.

“Who are you?” she demands.

“Who do you want me to be?” the boy - man, really - replies. He’s handsome. Dean’s opposite in nearly every way. He’s lean, making his height look more exaggerated even if he’s not as tall as her betrothed.

Beth lifts her chin, trying to make herself seem more confident than she is. “I want you to leave my party.”

“No, I don’t think I want to.”

“I’ll scream,” Beth says.

“Then scream,” the man replies. “Although, should you find yourself in this sort of situation again, I recommend not telling the man that you’re going to scream. Just do it. Otherwise, it’s clear that you want him to stay.”

Beth pulls her head back, her heavy earrings brushing her neck. “How dare you.”

“How dare I?” He leans a little lower. “And who might you be, little princess?” Quicker than Beth has ever seen anyone move, his hand has grabbed hers and is lifting it up in the air. She isn’t wearing gloves, but he is, a fact that she is incredibly glad of as he holds her hand up. His thumb settles against her betrothal ring.

“Ah,” he says. “Newly engaged. And pretty,” he adds, “so you can’t be Helen.”

Beth gasps at his insult to her cousin, also newly engaged. “How dare you.”

“You keep saying that,” he drawls, circling the stone on her ring. His eyes, dark and hard to make out with the lack of light, dart back up to hers. “And yet, you’re still out here.”

Beth yanks her hand away.

“Does he suit you, Elizabeth?” Beth swallows and says nothing. “Dean Boland. I’ve met him. He’s an insensitive brute. Your parents are trading you to him like a pretty little cow to slaughter.”

Before she can think better of it, Beth slaps him. Or she tries to, but he captures her hand at the wrist and tuts.

“Careful,” he warns her quietly.

Beth says nothing in reply and his touch gentles. His thumb strokes the inside of her wrist.

“Has he kissed you yet? Has anyone?”

She shakes her head.

“Do you want him to?”

Beth hesitates, then shakes her head again.

“In that case,” he says before ducking his head and pressing his lips to hers. Beth gasps at his audacity, but his lips get firmer and he presses closer to her. He withdraws, blinking down at her, then kisses her again.

“There,” he says when he straightens again. “Now you have something to compare him to.”

Beth stares at him. He steps back from her, then climbs the little wall that surrounds the balcony.

“Until we meet again, Elizabeth.” He bows his head. “Dream of me.”

He drops out of sight and it takes Beth a moment to get up the nerve to run to the stone barrier and look over. There’s no one in sight, like he was a ghost.

But he had been real. Beth can still feel the leather of his glove against her wrist, can still sense his lips against hers long after she’s allowed to leave the banquet and go to bed.

——————————

The next day, Beth is able to convince her cousin to accompany her out.

“You’re lucky that you’re not too much trouble,” Arnold grumbles, mostly teasing, “or I’d make you stay at home.”

Beth laughs, just relieved to be out of the house.

“Have you spent much time with him?” she asks eventually. “My betrothed.”

Arnold shakes his head. “Scarcely more than you, I’d wager. We don’t travel in the same circles.”

Which worries Beth. Arnold is the academic of the family. He likes to talk about philosophy and all of his friends wrote poetry about the way that the moon shone on a woman’s hair. She thinks that she might like to marry a man like that. One that was kind and sweet.

They reach another street and Arnold steers them to the right.

“Have you -“

“Well, well, well,” a deep, familiar, voice says .

Beth and Arnold turn their heads at the same time. It’s a group of young men, well-dressed. She starts to open her mouth to say hello, assuming that they’re acquaintances, when Arnold grabs her hand and pulls her to a halt.

“Get away,” Arnold snarls.

Beth’s eyes are caught on the young man at the head of the pack, the man from her party, the one that she had kissed. 

Who had kissed _her_ , she reminds herself. He’d stolen her first kiss.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he drawls slowly, eyeing her cousin up and down. “I remember being told that neither of our families had a right to determine who used the public streets.”

That draws Beth’s mind to a grinding halt, even as she tightens her hand around Arnold’s.

She can see his hand is twitching towards his sword. “Is that a challenge, Velasquez?”

Velasquez, and this must be him - the heir that everyone talks about, laughs. “I think I’d get more of a challenge from the girl.”

Beth bristles and Velasquez notices. He steps around Arnold and sweeps a bow, that absurd little half cape draping beautifully as he does. She’s so caught in the drape of the cloth that she doesn’t whip her hand away fast enough and then he’s tugging it to his lips and kissing the back of her hand.

His fingertips linger at her wrist, rubbing as he lowers her hand again.

“Lady,” he bows his head, “forgive me. I did not intend to interrupt your shopping.” There’s a current of teasing to the way he says it that makes Beth fist the hand that he’d just touched.

“And you are?” She manages to keep her voice disinterested. Those beautiful lips, that had been pressed to hers just a few hours earlier, curl into a smile.

“Rio, Duke Velasquez.”

Beth’s eyes widen. Duke? That means that -

“My uncle met with an unfortunate incident a week past,” he tells her, although his eyes go to Arnold and harden. “His carriage wheel snapped.”

“I -“ Beth swallows. “I am sorry for your loss.”

Rio’s eyes come back to her. “Oh, he isn’t dead. But he’s not in any shape to be acting as the head of the family.”

“Get away from her, Velasquez,” Arnold growls.

Beth has never known her cousin to be so impolite and abrupt, but Rio steps away from her with one last look.

“Shame,” he says - to her or to Arnold, she’s not sure, “that so beautiful a woman will go to Boland.” He clicks his tongue. “You must truly be desperate for allies. Lady,” he says with a bow, “enjoy your walk.”

Arnold is fuming as Rio and his friends disappear from sight, immediately turning them back towards home.

“What was that about?” Beth demands.

Arnold scowls at her. “Do not mention that to your mother,” he warns her. “She’ll never let you outside again.”

“Why not?”

“The way that Velasquez was staring at you?” Arnold shakes his head. “It was impolite. If you hadn’t been with me, I would have challenged the bastard.”

“He’s not a bastard,” Beth says. At least, she’s quite sure he’s not. People don’t tell her everything.

Arnold heaves a sigh. “Not in that sense, no. But stay away from him. Especially if he’s the duke now. That means he’s the one with the prince’s ear, even more than before.”

“What’s that mean?”

Arnold ignores her and falls silent until he can pass her back to her mother.

“How was your walk?” her mother asks, touching Beth’s cheeks. “Did you cover up?”

“Yes, mama,” Beth says.

“Good. We can’t have you in the sun now, before the wedding.”

Beth swallows back the desire to run outside into the sunniest spot in the courtyard and goes to sit with Ruby and stitch.

In quiet tones, she tells her friend all about the morning’s events. And what had happened the night before.

Ruby’s eyes widen as she glances around to ensure that no one’s listening in. “He kissed you?”

Beth nods.

“He’s handsome,” Ruby comments. “What was it like?”

All she can do is blush. “Have you kissed Stan?” she asks after a moment.

Ruby grins, nods once, prompting Beth to start giggling.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” she murmurs to Ruby once she settles down.

Ruby shrugs a shoulder. “I don’t have to tell you everything, you know.”

“What don’t you have to tell?” Annie demands, popping up on the other side of the courtyard wall.

“Annie!” Beth shouts, sighing in frustration when she watches her sister’s dress catch on a piece of metal filigree and rip when Annie tugs at it.

“Oops,” Annie says, sitting in between Beth and Ruby. “Can you fix it?” She holds up the dress.

“You can fix it,” Beth retorts, handing her a needle and a green thread similar to the colour of the dress.

Annie groans. “I’m not as good!”

“So you have to practice,” Beth says.

Dinner is a quiet affair, especially after the banquet the previous night. Her father doesn’t even come home.

“He’s visiting with your uncles,” her mother says.

When she retreats to her rooms, she just feels so tired. One of the maids helps her remove her day dress and replace it with a nightgown.

“Is there anything else?”

Beth shakes her head. “No, thank you.” She goes into her bedchamber alone, yawning as she continues to brush her hair.

There’s a movement in the corner of the room.

Beth throws her hairbrush towards the moving shadow.

The shadow bats the brush away, knocking it to land on the carpet and Beth is about to scream when the shadow pulls back his hood. She clamps her mouth shut.

“Good evening, Elizabeth,” Duke Velasquez says, like he didn’t just climb up three stories to climb in through her window. She stares at him. “How are you?”

“What are you doing here?” she finally gets out.

He starts to walk around the edges of her room, inspecting everything in sight. “You invited me.”

“I did not!”

The duke turns his head towards her. “Then why did you look back at me as your cousin dragged you away?” The rest of his body follows his head, then he leans against the wall as he studies her.

Beth realizes that she’s wearing nothing but her nightgown. Gasping, she snatches up a heavy robe and wraps it around her shoulders to hide herself from his sight. He grins, like he’s indulging a child.

“I did not invite you,” she says.

“No?” He tilts his head. “Perhaps not with your words,” he admits, “but those eyes…”

“Get out,” Beth tells him.

“If you want me out, prove it.”

Beth’s head jerks back. “What?”

“Scream,” he says. “Draw those incompetent guards to your bedroom. I’ll leave before they arrive, but I won’t bother you again.”

She opens her mouth to do just that. She intends to scream, but she stops.

“Why are you here?” she asks instead.

He walks towards her. “Perhaps you interest me.”

“I’m sure plenty of women interest you,” Beth tells him, holding her robe close. “Do you often sneak in through their bedroom windows? Don’t answer that, Your Grace,” she hastily adds when she realizes what he might say.

Rio chuckles.

“Did your cousin rush you home?” he asks, taking a seat on her bed. Beth stares at him. He’s dressed all in black again and he stands out against the rich colours of her bedding. “He did,” he concludes. “Did you have as much time out as you wanted?”

“No,” Beth tells him. Which is his fault. She glares at him. “No thanks to you.”

“Apologies, my lady,” he says, not sounding apologetic in the slightest. “And call me Rio.”

“You’re very rude.”

“Am I?” He studies her. “I brought you something.”

Despite herself, Beth is intrigued. “Oh?”

He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a little twist of paper, which he passes to her. She knows what it is as soon as she sees it, but unwrapping it to see the candy inside still makes her smile.

“They’re my favourite,” she says.

His smile looks genuine now. “Are they? I just guessed.”

Beth nods. She pops the candy into her mouth, enjoying the tart sweetness that spreads over her tongue.

“You have to get rid of this,” she says, passing him the wrapper again. He raises an eyebrow, but takes it back. “My mother will be furious if she knows that I’m eating candies.”

“A young lady should be allowed to have all the candies she likes,” Rio comments.

She gives him a look. “Why are you here?” she repeats her question again.

“Perhaps I like you.”

“You don’t know me,” Beth says.

He shrugs. “Perhaps I’d like to. Tell me,” he stands to walk around her room, “what does a lady like you enjoy? Other than sweets, of course.”

Beth flushes. “I like to embroider and -“

He cuts her off. “No, what do you really enjoy?”

Beth looks at him. “Books.”

“Books?” Rio asks. “Have you been to the library at the university?”

She shakes her head. “Of course not. Women aren’t allowed.”

“And if I said I could take you there?”

Beth sits up. “You could?” She’s always wanted to go. Her cousins have told her about it and she’d always found it distinctly unfair that she wasn’t allowed. “Tonight?”

He chuckles, walking back to her. “Not tonight, little adventuress. I’d need a little time to arrange things.”

“Arrange what things?”

“You’ll see,” he tells her, “if you’re brave enough to come with me.”

Beth narrows her eyes. “Why should I trust you?”

“Do I frighten you?” He asks it softly and for the first time, he sounds a little unsure of himself. Beth shakes her head. “I won’t let any harm come to you.”

She chews on her lip. “I barely know you.”

“And yet I’ve climbed in through the windows of your house twice now,” he says. “Have I harmed you in any way?”

Beth shakes her head. “No, but you still could.”

“True,” he admits with a nod. “But what reason do I have?”

“Are our family names not enough?” Beth asks. The question isn’t as sharp as she means for it to be and he just shrugs.

“Did you dream of me?” he changes the direction of their conversation.

“What?” Beth wraps her robe a little tighter around herself.

His seriousness melts away, replaced with a smile. “I told you to dream of me,” he says, dropping down onto the bed again, this time leaning back on his hands. “Did you?”

She had barely slept the night before, tossing and turning until the morning.

“No,” she tells him.

“Liar.”

Beth gasps, taken aback at his rudeness.

“I think you did,” he says, “and that you don’t want to tell me.”

“For your information,” Beth retorts, “I barely slept.”

She has apparently given him the wrong piece of information.

“Perhaps you were too busy thinking of me to fall asleep,” he suggests. “I thought of you.”

“You did?” Beth is surprised. He had seemed like the type who was used to having women fawning over him. Perhaps that was why he kept appearing. She wasn’t as besotted as he wanted her to be.

The duke hums. “I had difficulty sleeping as well. I thought of you. How beautiful you looked, hiding from your party in the night.” His eyes go down her body before slowly returning to her face. “And then this afternoon,” his voice lowers and Beth finds herself stepping a little closer to him so that she could hear him better, “I had the chance to see you again in the sunlight. And you were just as beautiful.”

No one’s ever said that to her, not in such plain words at least. She’s had boys compose poems for her, but those had mostly compared her to beautiful things.

“Come here,” he says, sitting up.

Beth steps closer and closer until the front of her robe is brushing against his legs.

“Would you like me to kiss you again?”

She swallows. “No.”

His hand comes up to her face and she realizes that he’s not wearing gloves. “No?” His touch moves up her cheek and then into her hair. “I see. I’ll have to try harder then,” he murmurs. He’s very close to her. Or maybe she’s very close to him. No matter which it is, when he stands, it presses them against each other. “You can have it your way, Elizabeth,” he bends to speak into her ear, “so long as you promise to dream about me.”

Beth shivers as his breath ghosts over her skin. When had she raised her hands to grip his tunic? His lips are hovering just a hair’s breadth from her earlobe and it has never felt more sensitive. With every exhale, his breath caresses her skin and she imagines for a moment that it’s his lips.

Another exhale.

She inhales sharply.

“Yes,” he says, “I think you will.”

He straightens. “I’ll return when I’m ready to take you to the library.”

With that, he goes to the window and climbs out.

Beth is left there standing in shock and by the time she goes to the window to see how he’s getting down, he’s already gone.

There is, however, a trellis on the side of the house. It looks too far to reach, but she has a feeling that Duke Velasquez has no such troubles. She shivers at the thought of his name even though she feels too warm. She sheds her robe and climbs into bed.

To her relief, she falls asleep, but her dreams aren’t restful. They’re filled with a hovering presence, gentle touches, and a pair of lips that she is beginning to know all too well.

—————————————

It takes him a few nights to return and Beth starts to think that he’s forgotten about her. But she’s getting ready for bed again when he climbs in through her window and holds out a package to her.

“What is it?”

“Your disguise,” he says.

“I can’t go with you.”

“Come on,” Rio goads.

Beth shakes her head. “I’ll get in trouble.”

“Have you ever been in trouble?” Rio asks, giving her a look that says he doesn’t think that she has. “No one will see you, I swear it.”

“How?” Her resistance is waning. She _wants_ to go.

With a grin, Rio passes over the package.

Beth opens it, only to find a heavy veil. In black.

“You want me to pretend to be a widow?” she hisses.

“It’s the best disguise,” Rio tells her. “If we encounter anyone in the library, I’ll tell them that you’re my lover. No one will be bothered by it.”

Beth shakes her head, then stops. “Do you often take widows as your lovers?”

Rio hesitates. “In the past,” he says slowly, “I have kept the company of a widow.”

She narrows her eyes. He’s lying, or at least underplaying how many widows he’s spent time with. But the idea of them being bold enough to put on heavy veils and let Rio take them into a place where women are forbidden from going makes her snatch up the cloth.

“I need to wear a different dress,” she tells him. “Don’t look.”

She’s quite sure that he looks while she sheds her robe and tugs on the black that she’d worn for her grandfather’s mourning period.

He helps her arrange the veil over her hair, then steps back. “Good.”

The climb out of the window is every bit as nerve wracking as she thought that it would be, but she’s surprised to find that with Rio’s help, she is able to grasp the trellis. It is strong and climbing down is no different from climbing a ladder, although her voluminous skirt nearly sends her tumbling.

He whisks her into a carriage, climbing in after her. “It’s a short ride,” he tells her.

“I do know where the library is,” she tells him, a little harshly.

Rio smiles. “Of course.”

Her bravery abandons her once they reach the building.

“I can’t go in,” Beth says, hovering outside of the door.

“Why not?” Rio asks. “Do you not want to?”

“You know I do.”

“Then come on,” he coaxes her.

When she still hesitates, he extends his hand to her. 

“Trust me,” he says softly, maintaining eye contact with her.

Beth bites her lip. What is she doing, running around the city at night with a man that her family calls their enemy. If she is seen, the fallout will be disastrous.

She takes his hand and lets him pull her inside.

As he leads her through the library, Beth can barely hide her excitement.

She is still convinced that someone will question them, perhaps even recognize her through the heavy veil. But the few other young men that they encounter just greet Rio, pointedly ignoring her except for their curious eyes.

“Who is she?” one of the young men says under his breath to Rio before leaving.

Rio laughs. “My business and not yours, Montague,” he retorts before shoving the man away and leading Beth into a little nook.

“Is it everything you thought it would be?” he asks.

“It’s wonderful, Rio,” she whispers, breath catching when he lifts her veil. Holding it in place so that no one will be able to see her face but him, he kisses her again. 

He does it again in the carriage, then once he returns her to her room.

“You have to stop,” she tries to tell him, but he just looks at her with his warm brown eyes and kisses her again before disappearing back out the window.

Beth is left alone, touching her lips gently with her fingertips and wondering how things could have changed so quickly for her.

———————————————————

“Something’s on your mind.” Beth is jolted from her thoughts. Looking at Ruby, she blinks several times. “Perhaps someone?”

Beth bites her lip, nods slightly. Several days have passed since her adventure to the library and Rio has visited every night.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

She isn’t. In fact, she’s quite sure that it’s an awful idea to continue to allow Rio to sneak into her room, to kiss her. He’d come back the night before as well, bringing her candy again.

But when she’d started to tell him that he had to stay away, he had kissed her in such a way that she’d grown hot. He had pressed his chest against hers and played with her hair. By the time he had left, Beth was more confused than ever.

Perhaps if it had just been the kisses, she might have been able to declare that he had dastardly intentions. But he’d taken her around the library, showing her everything she asked him to. He had spoken of his father, asked Beth about her sister, then Ruby once Beth mentioned her.

She knew that she should make him stay away. Even if he were just any man, it was still a dangerous game that she was playing, allowing him to continue thinking that he was allowed to visit her in her bedroom. To kiss her and -

Ruby’s cough brought her out of her daydreams again.

“It’s a terrible one,” she admits to her best friend.

“Send him away,” Ruby suggests.

Beth sighs. “I told him that and then he kissed me and I just…”

Ruby’s smile is knowing. She has her own romance, although hers is approved by her family. “You forget.”

“Yes.”

Ruby looks around. “Perhaps you could spend the night with Annie for a little while,” she suggests. “Annie would love it and with you leaving soon, it might be nice to spend time with her.”

At the reminder of her impending marriage, which will result in her leaving the only home that she has ever known and being parted from her little sister, Beth takes a shaky breath as she nods. “It’s a good idea. I’ll do that tonight. Now, tell me about Stanley. I think I’m beginning to forget all of his qualities.”

Laughing, Ruby accepts the change in subject.

———————————————————

Annie is delighted to let Beth sleep in her bed and insists on whispering late into the night.

“I’ll miss you so much,” she says, clutching at Beth’s hands. “You’ll go and then it will just be me.”

Beth kisses their joined hands. “No, it won’t,” she says. “There’s Mother and Father and the aunts, uncles, cousins. I won’t even be all that far away. You can come and visit.”

“Can I have a bedroom in your house?” Annie asks.

Beth smiles. “Of course.”

After Annie falls asleep, Beth sobers. She has no idea what her husband will allow.

Will he insist that Beth’s family stay separate? Will he forbid Annie’s presence?

She spends the next several nights in Annie’s room as well, all too aware of the diminishing time that they have together.

The second morning she wakes up in Annie’s bed, she returns to her room to prepare for her day and finds several of her things moved around. Even without proof, she knows that Rio has been there. Had he waited for her?

She makes herself forget about it and throws herself into spending time with her family.

But she cannot avoid him forever, something that becomes clear at a party later that week.

Beth smiles politely at the other young women. Most of them are betrothed, but none are married yet. The married ones are sitting together.

One of them, a Jocelyn, Beth thinks, sighs. “He’s so handsome,” she declares.

“Who?” another girl asks.

“Duke Velasquez,” Jocelyn says. “He’s just arrived with his cousin.”

Beth stiffens at the knowledge that he’s here. What if he comes close? Teases her the way that he does when he - oh, she’s been so foolish to allow it to continue. But the woman sitting next to Beth interprets her tension differently.

She pretends that she doesn’t see that woman pinch Jocelyn and gesture towards Beth with her head. The feud between their families is well known.

“I’m sure he won’t come over,” another woman assures Beth. “It would be inappropriate.”

Beth is tempted to tell the woman that Rio loves nothing more than being inappropriate, but considering the widening of eyes, she’s quite sure that he’s started to move towards them. 

Not to mention, she should have no knowledge of him. Should not call him Rio.

“Ladies.” His voice sends a shiver down her spine.

“Would you allow me this dance?” It’s directed towards her.

Beth’s eyes widen and she glances at the other ladies, who look just as shocked. His smile is teasing. 

It’s rude to refuse, but she knows that her mother will berate her later at home. Not to mention her cousins. As if this is her choice!

She extends her hand and lets him lead her out onto the floor.

There are mutters as people catch sight of them.

“What are you thinking?” she asks as quietly as she can.

Rio keeps his head straight as they begin to dance. “That I wanted to see you.”

“In public?”

“Anywhere I can.” Her eyes flick towards him, but she can’t get a firm grip on his emotions. He’s wearing a blank mask.

“People will know.” She is trying to move her lips as little as possible.

“Good,” he murmurs. “Let them.”

They part for a moment, then return together. “Rio, my parents are here.”

“As are members of my own family,” he says. “I tried to visit you in private.”

Facing one another, palms pressed together, Beth doesn’t meet his eyes. “This is madness and it needs to stop here. Before it becomes too much.”

“Do you want to stop?”

No, Beth thinks. Her heart jumps when his thumb passes over the inside of her wrist.

“I think not,” Rio says, too sure of himself.

“Rio,” she sighs.

He glances at her as they turn. “Meet me tonight.”

She doesn’t answer him, just finishes the dance in silence. When her mother practically drags her away and interrogates her about what the Duke Velasquez thought to get from her, Beth simply says that she doesn’t know.

“He was polite,” she tells her parents. Still, it has shaken them and they whisk her away as soon as they can politely do so.

Rio isn’t waiting for her in her room, but he joins her not long after the maid leaves.

“What are you doing?” she asks him, brushing the ends of her hair.

“What do you mean?”

Beth turns to him. He’s still dressed in his clothing from earlier.

“Why are you tormenting me?” Beth asks. “Are you trying to ruin me? Hurt my family? What? Why do you insist on -“ she stumbles as she tries to find the right word for how she feels, “on hunting me? It isn’t fair.”

“Not fair?” He steps closer. Beth hasn’t wrapped herself in a robe this time. “No?”

She shakes her head.

“Is it fair that I see your eyes whenever I close my own?” Rio’s voice is low, but rough. He sounds almost angry, but he isn’t. “Is it fair that all I can think about is the feeling of your neck under my lips?” He reaches up and sets his hand there. He curls his fingers around her neck and strokes his thumb up and down.

“Is it fair that I just want to make you smile for me? That it drives me to distraction when my mind should be on other things? Don’t send me away, Elizabeth. Please.”

Beth stares up at him, feeling his touch on her neck like it burns.

“We can’t. We shouldn’t.”

“Says who?”

“Our families.”

“I am the head of my family,” Rio declares, “and I will do as I wish.”

“I’m betrothed.”

“Betrothals can be ended,” he reminds her.

He bends and kisses her so very softly on the lips that Beth immediately wants more. Expects more.

“It’s madness, Rio,” she tries to tell him even as she presses her lips against his and pulls him into a deeper embrace.

He nods. “Yes, but so long as we both feel it, I see no reason why we cannot be mad together.”

With that, he kisses her back in earnest.

At one point, he lifts her onto the bed and spreads out next to her, still kissing her.

The longer he kisses her, the more restless Beth feels, but he can’t stay forever.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he tells her when he leaves.

Beth nods, already counting down the time.

—————————————————————

And so it goes, night after night. He tells her of his family, his friends. Beth does the same.

He sneaks her out again, this time to see the gardens at night. She meets a man that Rio calls Demon, who is as much a bodyguard as a friend, when he accompanies them there. He is polite and kind to Beth.

And every night, Rio’s lips kiss her farewell.

Every morning, Beth is struck again with dread for her approaching wedding. Her mother has her fitted for gowns. Gives her perfunctory information of what to expect from marriage.

It disappears at the sight of Rio. At the feeling of him.

One night, they’re sitting on the carpet of her bedroom, far too close to be appropriate, but more apart than they usually are, when Rio passes her a little velvet bag.

“What is it?” she asks, even as she opens it.

He just laughs, waits for her to tilt the bag and spill the contents into her palm. Beth stops breathing at the sight of the gift.

“Oh,” she sighs.

Rio takes the necklace from her hand and unclasps it so that he can put it on her neck. Beth feels his bare hands brushing oh so gently against her skin as he redoes the clasp. Instead of pulling away afterwards, his right hand follows the chain. She swallows when his fingertips brush over the tops of her breasts, shivering slightly when he reaches the almost austere cross that hangs at the end.

Hooking his forefinger under it, he lifts the talisman as he bends his head to kiss the metal before lowering it back against her skin.

“It’s beautiful,” she says, meaning it. Dean had given her a jewelled mirror that all the other women in her family had cooed over, but Beth had thought it gaudy.

“It was my grandmother’s,” he replies. “Before she caught my grandfather’s eye, she was a spinner.”

“Truly?” Beth asks.

Rio nods. “Even once she had all the jewels in the world at her fingertips, she always wore this.”

“Why?”

He reclines on his side, almost curling around her. She has to turn her head a little to meet his gaze. “When she was a girl, she went on pilgrimage with her own grandparents. It was blessed by the pope himself. My grandfather had it put onto this necklace.”

Beth’s eyes widen. “Oh Rio, I can’t accept this. It’s too much -“

He shakes his head. “You’re precious to me. Just as this necklace is.”

Beth picks up the crucifix to study it. The metal has already warmed to her body. She traces the edges of it.

“Rio,” she says softly, “we - I -“

He reaches out and puts his hand over hers.

“I’m to be married,” she reminds him, like there’s a chance that he’s forgotten. She tells him this every night.

Normally he just kisses her quiet, but tonight it is different.

His jaw hardens. “Not to him,” he says, so sure of himself. “Think of this,” he squeezes her hand around the necklace, “as a promise. You won’t marry him, even if I have to kill him with my bare hands.”

Beth shivers. He means it. Looking at him, she knows it’s true.

“Think of it as our promise,” he goes on. “Will you marry me?”

“My family -“

She stops when his eyes flash.

“Yes,” she answers. It’s what she wants, what she dreams about. “I’ll marry you.”

She’s glad that she says it because Rio’s face lightens. He pushes himself upright again, dropping the necklace and moving his fingers to the underside of her chin.

He kisses her until he has to leave or risk being caught by the guards.

She tries to make him take the necklace with him, but he shakes his head.

“Keep it.”

“I can’t wear it,” she reminds him.

He just kisses her again. “Keep it.”

When he’s gone, she hides it away. But first, she admires it a little more, her heart feeling too full.

—————————————————————

“Of course, that won’t matter,” Dean says.

Beth swallows, walking next to him through the gardens. They’re the same ones that Rio had taken her to and she hates that she is having to replace those memories with him with ones of Dean.

“It won’t?” she says, only half paying attention.

“Of course not. Why would my cousin inherit? We’ll have dozens of children,” he tells her.

Beth tightens her grip around her shawl.

Stopping in the path, Dean looks down at her. It is nothing like when Rio does it, full of affection and tenderness.

“You’re pretty,” he says with a shrug, “I imagine it won’t be much work ensuring that you give me as many as I need.”

She has to grit her teeth together to stop from shouting at him that she will not be bearing him a single child, that he will never lay a hand on her.

Instead, Beth just starts walking again.

—————————————————————

The next day, she begins to plan.

“You can’t be serious,” Ruby hisses. “A man named Demon?”

“It isn’t his real name,” Beth assures her friend, although Ruby likely already knows that. “And he’s quite kind.”

“You want to send a message to the duke through a man who goes by the name Demon,” Ruby repeats.

Beth meets her eyes. “Yes. Now can you do it or not?”

“If I say no, will you do something undoubtedly stupid?” Ruby asks. When Beth doesn’t answer, she finally relents.

The message is simple although she isn’t sure that Demon has received it until she looks out of her window the next night and sees him leaning against the outer wall. She drops a stone out the window, drawing his attention to her. He glances around, then nods.

Almost an old hand at this now, Beth climbs down from her window slowly.

“You’ll take me to him?” she asks Demon.

He nods. “The carriage is on the next street.”

He leads her to it and she’s pleased to see that the driver is the same man she’s met before. She nods in greeting at him, but with her hood pulled up around her hair and face, there’s very little of her that the man can see.

She’s never been to Rio’s house. Has never even seen the outside of it. She’s heard things of course, about how it’s a beautiful work of architecture that quietly boasts of the Velasquez family’s wealth.

It’s difficult to make it out in the dark, even though it’s quite well lit when the carriage goes through a secondary entrance.

Demon helps her down.

“Who is this?” one of the guards asks with a laugh. “For you, Demon?”

The man shakes his head. “His Grace, so you’ll keep your mouth shut.”

The guards immediately sober. “As always,” the first guard says, making Beth stiffen. As always? What’s that supposed to mean?

Before she can think it through too far, Demon nudges her forward with a hand on her back.

He leads her through a series of quiet hallways that Beth is quite sure a great many people never see until they reach a door. Demon knocks and when there’s no answer, he opens it.

“He’ll be here soon,” the man says, voice gruff.

“Thank you,” Beth says, extending the little sachet of coins she intended to pay him with.

He just scowls at her and stomps away, shutting the door behind him. It’s immediately obvious that this door is not the main one. Instead, it’s tucked away, almost hidden beside the bed.

And what a bed. Beth reaches out to touch the carved bedpost. Every night, this is where Rio returns to sleep. After he leaves her, he comes here. These are his pillows and his blankets.

A sound alerts Beth to the other set of doors into the room being opened.

Rio steps into the room and he notices her almost immediately. His hand drops to the knife that he keeps at his side.

“Who are you?” he demands.

Beth has to smile as she steps towards him, already reaching up to lower her hood.

He relaxes, almost looks happy for a moment, then his face hardens.

“What are you doing here?”

“You aren’t the only one who can sneak about,” Beth tells him.

Rio scowls. “And if you’d been caught? Elizabeth, the watch could have arrested you. If my guards had seen you and alerted anyone else, I -“

“I asked Demon to help.”

That makes him stop in his tracks.

“I’m not foolish enough to think that I could do this on my own,” she says, unclasping her cloak and letting it fall to the floor. “Do you often have women brought to you in your rooms?”

He chokes on his words. “No!”

“Because Demon told the guards that I was one of your women,” Beth tells him, pulling off her gloves and setting them aside too.

He looks away. She’s struck a nerve. But he doesn’t avoid her eyes for long.

“None since I met you,” he admits. “There will be none after you.”

Beth smiles at him. The answer pleases her in a way she can’t explain. Next to go is her boots. That seems to jolt Rio out of whatever reverie he’s in.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

She sets her boots neatly at the wall and crosses the room on stockinged feet. As she gets closer, he makes out more of her expression.

“What’s wrong?” he demands. “Who upset you?”

She could tell him what Dean had said to her, what he had implied. But she doesn’t want to mention his name. She just shakes her head.

“I’m here because you’re here,” she explains. “And I always want to be where you are.”

He lets out a breath through his mouth, drawing it out. Reaching up, she undoes the simple tie that’s holding her gown closed. It’s the sort of thing that her mother would never allow her to wear out - too unstructured and plain. It’s something that Beth can put on and take off on her own.

Rio’s hand darts out and closes over hers, trapping the ties in her fist. “Elizabeth,” he hisses.

She meets his eyes evenly. “Did you mean what you said to me? That you’ll marry me?”

“Yes,” he says. It’s resolute. Like she’s not currently betrothed to another man, like their families aren’t enemies.

“I want to,” she tells him.

His grimaces. “Elizabeth, this can’t be undone.” He lets go of her hand, but it’s to re-do the closure of the dress.

Beth’s heart falls and her eyes start to sting. “You don’t -“ her voice cracks. “You don’t want me?”

Rio tilts her head back and presses his mouth to hers. She thinks that she can feel the affection in the kiss, but maybe it’s nothing. He doesn’t even want to look at her. When he pulls back, Beth looks away.

“I’ll go then,” she says, all her confidence gone. “I won’t bother you again.”

He grabs her before she can back up. “You ridiculous girl,” he sighs, “I’m trying to say that if we do this, it cannot be undone. If I bed you, I cannot unbed you. You won’t be a virgin anymore.”

“Will that bother you?” she asks. “If I come to our wedding not a virgin?”

He swears under his breath. “No,” he says, kissing her forehead. “It will not bother me. If we do this,” he lowers his head so that they’re eye to eye, “you will listen to me.”

Beth scowls at that.

“I’m serious, Elizabeth,” he tells her. “If we go to bed, I’m your husband in all but name. And you will listen to me when I tell you how we will ensure that we will be wed. It will not just be once that I have you, only for you to disappear from my side.”

Beth nods.

“If there’s a child, I won’t have it born a bastard,” he says.

She squirms a little. “There are ways to prevent that,” she reminds him. She knows that much.

It’s his turn to scowl. “The only way, as far as you’re concerned, to prevent a baby, is not to go to bed with me. I won’t withdraw. Not with my wife.”

Beth shivers at the determination in his voice. She nods once.

“So if you want to avoid that,” he says, “you need to go. I’ll see you home.”

She doesn’t pull back. She wants to be here. With him. She wants to know what it feels like.

“Elizabeth,” he nearly breathes her name, voices it as an exhale.

Beth undoes the top of her dress again and this time, he doesn’t stop her. Instead, he helps her.

She pushes off her outer dress, leaving her in the lighter linen underdress. Rio frowns at it and she giggles.

“How many of these are you wearing?” he asks as she turns to give him access to the ties.

“This is the last one,” she tells him, smiling as she pulls her hair over her left shoulder so he can see more easily. “I promise.”

“If I had my way,” he replies, “you would never wear a single stitch.”

Beth flushes at the idea. He parts the back of her dress, slides his hands in and steps closer. He bends and kisses her nape, right over where the clasp of the rosary he’d given her lies.

“Like a painter’s model.”

He withdraws his hands, brushing lightly over her ribs, and pushes her sleeves down. As soon as the air hits her bare skin, Beth is far too aware of her nudity. But Rio doesn’t turn her around or circle around to her front to inspect her. Instead, he cups her chin and directs her gaze up and over her shoulder.

“Don’t be frightened,” he says. Beth swallows, her throat dry.

“Now you,” she demands. Maybe that will make it easier.

He nods and steps away from her. She watches over her shoulder as his eyes take her in even as he begins to remove his own layers.

Beth has seen naked men before, but none like Rio. None so close.

None with the intention of bedding her.

“Will you let me see you?” he asks, shedding his tunic.

Beth chews on her lip. Slowly turns. She starts to lift her hands to cover herself, but stops, lowers them back to her side.

Rio stops, his trousers open, to drink her in.

“You’re beautiful,” he says, coming back to her and kissing her before she can say anything in response.

It’s a sweet kiss, not like the ones where he directs her to open her mouth and steals her breath away. When he pulls back, he smiles at her and shoves down his trousers.

Beth looks down, she can’t help it. She stares at Rio’s…cock. So this is what the maids had been talking about, she thinks, about men being at attention.

“Just thinking about you gets me hard,” Rio says, taking one of her hands and leading it to curl around his length. Beth bites her lip as she feels him under her palm. He stiffens further as he draws her hand up and down, making Beth pull her hand away. “What is it?” he asks her, other hand on her chin.

“It -“ Beth’s cheeks are as crimson as a ruby. “I don’t -“

“What do you know about this?” Rio asks.

“My mother said that my husband will put,” she glances down again, “that inside of me until he spills. But the maids say a great deal more.”

Rio looks slightly amused. “Oh? What do the maids teach you?”

“They don’t know that I’m listening,” she admits. “But sometimes I do. They say that a man can do all sorts of things to reach an end and that men like all kinds of things, not just a woman’s -“

“Uh huh,” Rio hums, leading her to the bed and pulling down the coverlet.

“Do you like those things?” Beth asks. She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of some of them - like taking him in her mouth - but others had sounded nice.

“I like you,” he tells her, kissing the tip of her nose and lifting her onto the bed.

She considers that answer, then nods. “They said that a man,” she falters, “thrusts inside of you again and again until he fills you up. And that if you don’t want a child, he has to withdraw before he does that.”

Rio climbs in next to her. “Lie on your back,” he tells her. She hesitates, but does as asked. His big hand settles on her belly.

“They said that sometimes it hurts a lot,” Beth admits. That’s what she’s been worried about. “My mother said that it is a duty that women must suffer because -“

Rio shakes his head. “It might hurt a little,” he tells her, “although I’ll try to make sure that it doesn’t.” Leaning on his one arm, his hand slides up to cup her breast. “But it should not be something that you suffer. It won’t be, not with me.”

Beth reaches up so that her hands join behind his neck. “You promise?”

He kisses her. “I promise.”

She’s expecting him to just…put it in after that, but instead, he continues to kiss her. It isn’t the sweet kisses, but the deep ones that have him licking into her mouth. His chest brushes against her bare breasts for a moment while he shifts his weight until he’s cupping her in his hand. He’s done this before, touching her like this, but it had been through layers of clothing and she’d been mostly held in place. Now, he pinches the nipple, then rubs the pad of his thumb over it.

And all the while, he keeps kissing her. She doesn’t notice him moving until his thick thigh is pressed up between her legs. The pressure of it makes Beth shiver and rock her hips a little. He doesn’t stop moving his lips and tongue against hers.

She realizes after a moment that she’s rubbing herself against his thigh and that she’s…

Beth breaks their kiss.

“What’s wrong?” He moves his hand to her hair and sweeps it over the pillow.

“I’m -“ she must be bright red.

He presses his thigh even closer to her and Beth gasps. “Do you like that?” he asks. Beth squirms. “Is that it? Does it feel good?”

He shifts again, nudging her legs farther apart so that he can rest in between them. She squeaks when his hand comes down to press against her centre.

“You’re wet,” he says, his eyes falling half closed. “That’s good.” He rubs his fingers up and down. “It will make it easier for your body to take me. Have you felt this before?”

Beth bites her lip. “I’m not supposed to -“

“That wasn’t my question,” Rio says gently. “Have you felt like this before?” He continues to move his fingers.

She nods.

“Have you touched yourself?”

She nods again, embarrassed.

“Did you like it?”

“It’s shameful,” Beth whispers. “I stopped.”

He nuzzles her jaw. “It’s not shameful. It is part of your body. Part that I have every intention of teaching you to enjoy.” He smiles and exerts pressure until one of his fingers dips inside of her. Beth nearly jumps out of her skin.

“Shhh, breathe,” he tells her. “Look at me.”

She meets his eyes, breathing too harshly at first, but slowly she relaxes. Eventually, he starts to move his finger, stroking her as he works it deeper.

He kisses her again when he starts to press the second finger in, swallowing her whimper at the stretch of it.

“Rio,” she gets out when he slants his head to the side for a different angle.

He hums, ducking down to kiss her jaw.

“Rio,” she repeats. “I want you.”

He pulls his head up. “Not yet.”

“Why not?” Beth demands, her hips twitching as he pushes both of his fingers inside. “I don’t want your fingers I want -“

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he says.

“It doesn’t hurt,” she tries to assure him, but he shakes his head.

“No,” he says. “It doesn’t hurt because I’m going slowly. You felt me. Was I bigger than two fingers?”

Beth nods, biting her lip.

“If I go too fast, I could hurt you,” Rio insists. “We do this slowly.”

“But -“

Rio sighs and drops his head to rest against hers. “Do you remember,” he says with a hint of amusement, “when you agreed to listen to me.”

“That wasn’t about this,” Beth tries to protest, but then he sinks his fingers in a little quicker and she grimaces.

“Elizabeth,” Rio says. “Be patient.”

Beth huffs, but tries to relax and follow his pace. He starts to move his fingers a moment later and this time, it feels very good. She’s getting looser, wetter for him, something that makes Rio groan before shifting so that he can get his mouth on her breast.

The next time that she cries out, it’s in pleasure.

“Rio, please,” she begs.

“In a moment,” he promises. He parts his fingers as he moves them in and out a few more times before finally removing them.

He lines himself up with her and Beth shivers at the sensation of him pressing against her. He curls his back so that he can kiss her, his hands working between them to press the head of his cock inside of her.

Beth winces into their kiss and Rio pulls back.

“Relax,” he tells her, his lips hovering over her cheek, then her chin. He pushes in further until he’s all the way in and Beth feels as though she’s been _speared_.

Rio buries his face between her breasts, his hands teasing her sides as he groans.

Beth breathes through her nose. It…it _hurts_. But the pain is fading to more of a discomfort as she adjusts to him.

He turns his head to mouth at her breast, moving his lips and tongue, even his teeth, up the slope of it until he reaches her nipple. It feels good, making Beth relax a little bit. He seems to sink even deeper when she does, drawing a hiss from him.

“You feel,” he inhales, “exquisite. Perfect.”

He nuzzles her breast, then lifts his head, looking down at her. Beth smiles at him, but he freezes.

“I’m hurting you,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fading,” she assures him.

He drops his head to touch hers and begins to pull back before pushing all the way in. The first couple of times, Beth tightens her grip on his arms, but she quickly gets used to the feeling. It’s strange and she’s not sure how she feels about it at first, but slowly it becomes more pleasurable.

She shifts her legs open a little farther, wraps one of them around Rio’s hip. He pants against her cheek.

“I’m going to come,” he says, moaning. Unsure of whether or not she’s supposed to do something, Beth waits until - Rio pushes in one last time with a harsh groan and the feeling of him changes.

“Oh,” Beth gasps.

Rio, one hand on her jaw, directs her face towards his so that he can kiss her, letting out little grunts as he rubs himself against her. Eventually, he pulls out and Beth feels so very empty for a moment before she notices that there’s something slipping out of her.

Rio kisses her once more before rolling out of bed, leaving Beth to peer down.

“What is it?” he asks, coming back with a wet cloth.

There’s a little smear of blood on the linen, but that isn’t what was causing the feeling. She reaches down to touch herself briefly, then brings her hand up to inspect it in the light before quickly dropping it again.

“Are you alright?” Rio rejoins her on the bed, parting her knees and pulling aside the blanket.

Rio cleans between her legs, kissing her thighs and stomach as he does.

“There can’t be any evidence for your servants to take to your parents,” he says gently as he slides his fingers inside of her. Beth gasps, squirming slightly at his touch.

He smiles up at her and crooks his fingers. Beth tries to clamp her legs shut, but he’s in between them, keeping her open to his probing fingers. The feeling from earlier comes back.

“Oh!” she gasps. He presses his thumb against the area right above where he has his fingers hooked inside of her and she moans. “What is that?” she asks.

Rio’s grin turns devious. “This?” He circles his thumb and then presses again. Beth nods, her thighs twitching. He hums. “This,” he says, “is how you get your pleasure, my darling.”

Beth yelps as something shoots through her belly. She closes her legs a little, but he sets his other hand against the inside of her thigh and pushes it back open.

He kisses her knee as he continues to move his fingers.

Beth cries out. Unlike before, there is no undercurrent of ache to the pleasure and she feels it growing.

Reaching for his hand, Beth holds it as Rio’s fingers drag her to a precipice. She starts to squirm against his hand, not sure if she wants more or less of what he’s doing.

“Almost there,” he tells her, like he knows what she’s thinking. “Let go, feel it.”

She’s not sure what else she would do.

Dropping her head into the pillow, she moans. All at once, what Rio has been building inside of her snaps, making her cry out again. A part of her knows that she’s being loud, but she can’t help it.

Rio never stops moving his fingers until the pleasure fades to a fog and she has to whimper. She lifts her head after he pulls his fingers free and sinks them into his mouth.

Her eyes widen. “Why did you do that?”

“Why not?” Rio shoots back, leaning down to kiss the inside of her thigh. “I wanted to try. You taste divine. Like a goddess incarnate.”

She gasps and pushes at his shoulder. “You can’t say that!”

“No?” Rio rises up beside her.

“It’s blasphemous,” she reminds him.

“Of course,” he agrees. “My pretty little goddess.”

She grabs his pillow and thumps him with it, which he takes as a challenge. Tearing the pillow from her hand, he rolls them across the bed, running his hands all over her.

They can’t play forever though, and the time soon comes for her to leave.

Rio is sober as he helps her dress again.

“It seems a crime,” he says.

“Hmmm?”

“To cover you back up,” he explains, cupping her breast gently.

She blushes, but she’s quite certain that it’s driven by pleasure this time, rather than embarrassment.

Rio takes her back home, sees her into bed and kisses her softly. When she grips the front of his shirt, he smiles.

“Soon,” he promises,“we won’t have to part.”

“You swear it?” Beth asks.

He nods. “I swear it.” He sets his fingers over the rosary that he gifted to her. “Before God. Now go to sleep.”

Beth doesn’t let go of his shirt. “Be safe.”

“I will.”

Then he’s gone, back out the window that he had just helped her through. Beth looks at the necklace and with a sigh, takes it off to hide it again before letting herself fall asleep.

—————————

“Morning, my love.”

Beth bolts upright, nearly hitting her head against her mother’s.

“Oh, sorry, Mama,” Beth rushes to apologize. There’s a moment when she can’t remember if she took off Rio’s rosary, but she lifts her hand to her throat as if she’s surprised and it isn’t there.

“You slept late this morning,” her mother comments, reaching up to tug Beth’s hair into place. “Are you ill?”

Beth sits up properly. “No, I don’t think so.”

“It must be the wedding then. Which is why I came to wake you. Dean sent a messenger to request permission to take you on a walk.”

“Oh.” Beth swallows, setting her hand on her belly. Maybe she can fake illness.

Her mother frowns. “What’s wrong with you, Elizabeth? You would think that you would be more excited to be married. Soon you’ll be starting a family of your own, beginning to run a household.”

Except she wouldn’t. She’d be living under the roof of Dean’s mother and father, who would have their own ideas about what she should be doing. Namely lying back and -

She presses her hand even tighter to her belly.

Oh.

“It’s nothing, Mama,” she says, leaning over to kiss her mother’s cheek. “It’s just nerves. I’m sure it will fade. Will you come and chaperone?”

There’s a slight ache between her legs as she dresses and she’s terrified that someone will know what’s happened. But no one says anything to her or looks at her strangely. It is like she is still the same Beth from yesterday to them.

She’s demure when Dean arrives and allows herself to be led for a walk as her mother trails behind. She lets him talk at her, feigning interest in something she barely even hears.

Was Rio’s child beginning to grow in her belly even now?

It is only the tiniest part of her that scolds her rashness in going to him the night before. But most of her feels a sense of peace at the knowledge that she and Rio could be tied together through a child. He swore to marry her and she trusts him. But a child?

She smiles softly at the thought.

Dean’s face turns dark and Beth follows his line of sight right to - her heart begins to beat faster.

Rio’s at the head of a group of his cousins. Seeing him like this, standing tall and confident, makes Beth feel hot. He throws his head back to laugh at something one of them says and she realizes that there’s a little bruise high up on his neck. For a moment, she wonders if he’s had a fight, only for her mind to supply her with the sensation of his throat under her lips. Between her teeth.

She flushes.

He’s wearing it like a mark of pride. As he lowers his head, he meets her eyes and his lips twitch just a fraction.

“Ah,” he calls out, “beauty and the beast.”

Dean’s hand flexes, clearly wanting to reach for his sword. But with the recent edicts, he doesn’t dare.

“Tell me, Lady Elizabeth,” Rio approaches, “do you expect him to transform into a prince?”

Beth lifts her chin. “I’ve found that most men are beasts, even princes. Or dukes.”

Rio smiles at her before transferring his gaze back to Dean.

“Do you enjoy knowing that your parents are purchasing your bride?” he taunts Dean. The implication makes Beth scowl. She’s not being purchased. “No, I imagine you don’t. It would sting.”

Dean steps forward, but Rio just shakes his head. “You’re escorting a lady,” Rio says, almost scolding, “I won’t have you leaving her unprotected. It would be rude.”

One of his cousins laughs and Rio seems to wink at Beth before he turns.

She wants to reproach him, but they’re in public and no one can know that they are anything beyond the barest acquaintances.

“Would you please take me home?” Beth asks Dean when she sees that he’s looking after Rio and his cousins. “I should like to rest this afternoon.”

That startles him out of it and he nods, returning Beth to her parents’ house.

“May I speak to the Lady Elizabeth?” Dean asks her mother, who had been trailing behind them the whole time. They’re in the entryway, guards outside and the family inside.

Her mother nods. “Only a moment,” she says, then steps into the light of the courtyard, leaving Beth alone with -

Dean kisses Beth, nearly shoving her into the wall as he does. She freezes, torn between shoving him away and waiting for him to stop.

She stays still until he pulls away, glaring down at her.

“You can’t do that,” she tells him, trembling with her own anger.

“Yes,” Dean snaps, “I can. We’re betrothed, Elizabeth. We’ll be married in weeks. You can’t put me off forever.”

Beth lifts her chin and tries to step aside, only for his arm to block her.

“I won’t let you shame me,” she tells him.

He scowls. “This piety is admirable,” he says, “but unnecessary.”

Beth feels her earrings brushing the sides of her neck. They’re ones that Dean had gifted her, although she’s certain that his mother chose them. They make her ears hurt. “Without guarantees,” she says, “it is very necessary.”

“There are -“

“Monetary guarantees,” Beth agrees, “yes. I am aware. What is money before the eyes of God?”

Dean looks away. Beth feels slightly ashamed at her hypocrisy. Just the night before, she had let Rio - a man with whom she had no guarantees at all - taken her virginity. Even now she might be with his child.

“I ask you not to press the matter,” she says more firmly.

Dean nods. “Fine,” he reluctantly agrees. “Good day.”

He turns and leaves.

When Beth steps into the house, her mother is waiting there with a smile on her face.

“He wants time alone with you,” her mother sounds amused.

“He wants to take liberties with me,” Beth corrects. “And I won’t allow it.”

“Beth,” her mother steps forward and brushes a piece of Beth’s hair off her face, “you are nearly married. While you should not let him inside of you, there’s nothing wrong with kissing. You could allow him some liberties.”

Beth’s head jerks back at that. “Mother!”

“What?”

“You’ve spent years and years telling me to guard my virtue and now you want me to -“

Her mother scoffs. “You don’t want him to think you cold.”

Beth bites back a protest. “I’m tired. I think I’ll rest.”

“Of course,” her mother says, waving Beth off.

—————————————————————

That night, Demon helps whisk Beth away to Rio’s home and his bed again.

She’s relieved to see the man waiting for her in the street and even more relieved when Rio’s waiting for her. She has every intention of talking with him, perhaps scolding him for taunting Boland, but he’s only half dressed and as soon as she arrives, he scoops her up into his arms and carries her to his bed.

“Are you too sore?” he asks.

Beth shakes her head. She is a little, but she wants to feel what she felt the night before again.

Rio strips them both and tumbles her back into his sheets, making love to her vigorously. It’s different the second time and Rio rubs his thumb against that spot that gives her pleasure, this time while he’s inside of her.

Again, he spills inside of her, making Beth shiver and moan. With each time that they do this, that he does this, it becomes more likely that he’ll get her with child. 

Eventually, he pulls out and shifts so that he’s lying on his side next to her.

“What’s wrong?” Rio asks, kissing her throat. “You’re quiet. Normally I can’t make you stop chattering.”

Beth grabs a pillow and whacks him with it. Rio grabs it with a laugh and tosses it towards the end of the bed.

“He kissed me,” she admits. “When he took me home.”

Rio’s amusement disappeared.

“I told him no, but he told me that we’re betrothed and that he has certain -“ Beth trails off.

“Expectations?” Rio says through gritted teeth.

Beth nods, reaching out to play with the ring on his finger - the one with his family seal. He lets her do that for a moment, but eventually stops her by closing his hand over hers.

“Elizabeth,” he says, “look at me.”

She shifts her head so that she’s looking him in the eye.

“Did he hurt you?” he asks it carefully, gently.

“No,” Beth replies.

Rio strokes the apple of her cheek. “Did he frighten you?”

“A little.”

“I’ll kill him.”

Beth jerks upright, moving so that she’s leaning against Rio, hand planted in the centre of his chest. “You can’t.”

“I can,” Rio insists, “and I will.”

“No,” Beth protests. “They’ll charge you. They could execute -“

Rio surges up, rolling them so that Beth is on her back underneath him.

“They won’t,” he says. “I’m the head of my family. I’m responsible for more business in this city than anyone else. I own the judges. I pay the salaries of the soldiers. Do you think that there’s anyone stupid enough to try and bring me down?”

“If you kill him, his family will try. As will mine.”

Rio scowls. “They would move against you and your husband?”

Beth reaches up to touch his cheek. “Rio, they won’t believe that I came willingly. Or they’ll say that you seduced me.”

“I think that you’re the one that seduced me, Elizabeth,” Rio says.

She nods. “I know. But they hate your family. They would see us as a - as a ploy.” She turns her head. “Maybe it is.”

His hand turns harsh, bringing her eyes back to his. “Don’t you dare say that,” he whispers. “Don’t you dare accuse me of playing with your affections for - for a stupid fucking feud that our families have been fighting since before either of us were born.” He’s hurt by the suggestion and Beth immediately regrets letting her insecurity take over.

“I know,” she promises. “I swear. I’m just frightened.”

“I told you before, I will sort this out.”

Beth strokes his cheek with her thumb. “I know. I believe you.”

He leans down to kiss her.

“Can you get away the night after next?”

Beth nods. “I think so.”

He smiles. “Good.”

———————————

The next day is filled with well-meaning relatives telling Beth that she’ll have no trouble bearing children with her hips. Dinner is exhausting and Beth falls into bed longing for the next night to come. Rio had asked if she could get away, but had said nothing else.

Ruby whispers a message into Beth’s ear after breakfast. “He told me where to take you,” Ruby says. “After the midnight bell.”

Beth nods. “Where?”

Ruby shakes her head. “He said not to tell you.”

Beth has to fight back her desire to demand more information.

Instead, she spends her day flitting between fittings and awkward meals with guests that have arrived early to discuss business with her family.

The time to sneak out is earlier than she usually would and she’s worried that they’re risking more by doing this when the sun has barely disappeared, but when she tells her mother that she needs her beauty rest, she’s dismissed.

Ruby helps her sneak through the back corridors and out to the alley, where she’s bribed a guard to leave for a few moments.

Hidden in Rio’s carriage, Beth takes her best friend’s hand. “Where are we going?”

“The church,” Ruby says.

Beth stops breathing.

“You love him?”

Beth nods.

“Then I’ll stand with you,” Ruby says.

She hugs Ruby. “Thank you. You are the truest friend that anyone could ever have.”

Ruby laughs, hugging Beth back. “I’m sure that your family will not agree.”

“You’ll come with me to Rio’s household,” Beth says.

“He might not want me to-“

“I don’t care,” Beth tells her. “If he says anything, I’ll tell him that you’re coming with me.”

Eventually, they reach the church. Beth tugs her hood up to hide her face and hair as they enter, Ruby doing the same beside her.

Rio’s waiting just inside and smiles when he sees her.

He lowers Beth’s hood. She glances around the church. It’s mostly empty, just a priest and a few familiar faces. Rio’s most trusted men. Ruby.

“Marry me,” he whispers, “here, tonight.”

Beth smiles even as tears well up in her eyes. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

He laughs, pressing their foreheads together. “Good,” he says, “because I paid a great deal of money to see this done on short notice.”

Beth giggles, then sobers. “I’m not dressed for a wedding.”

“You’re beautiful,” Rio says. “The most beautiful woman in the world. I don’t care if you’re not wearing a wedding dress. I care that you’re here. With me.”

The wedding is short, stripped to the bare bones. But Rio ensures that every single tradition is honoured.

“There will be nothing left to chance,” he says. “No chance that they can declare it invalid.”

Beth nods.

Once the ceremony has been concluded, he sends Ruby home with Demon as an escort and takes her back to his house.

Rio undoes the laces, starting at the top and slowly working his way down. “I hate this thing,” he says, tossing her stays aside. “It hides you from me. Your shape.” He sets his hands on her waist and pulls her closer to him.

Beth laughs, pulling him down to kiss her. “I hate this,” she says, tugging on his shirt.

“Oh?” Rio nearly purrs with satisfaction as he strips her, then begins to undo the closures on his own clothing. When he shoves the last of it off, he grabs Beth’s face and tilts it up towards his to kiss her. “Get in bed,” he demands.

She considers disobeying just to prove a point, but she wants to be in bed. She wants it far more badly than she is willing to admit. So she steps away from him and, with a glance back at him over her shoulder, walks to the bed and climbs in. Rio’s bedroom is warm, but she slips under the sheets and pulls them up to cover her nudity, although the first thing that Rio does after following her is yank them back down.

“What did I just say about not liking it when you’re hidden,” he murmurs, sitting next to her hip. His hand is gentle as it squeezes her breast and strokes her soft skin. “Beautiful.”

Beth puts her hand over his. “You’re beautiful too,” she tells him. “The most handsome man that I’ve ever met.” She needs him to know that for some reason.

He smiles and leans down, kisses her nose in an oddly innocent gesture. “Am I?”

She nods. “I thought it that night, on the balcony.”

Finally, he stretches out beside her and with a laugh, he pushes her hair back and kisses her lips. “Did you? It must have been a shock when you saw me on the street.”

“A little,” she admits. “But in a way, I was glad. Because if you had been a friend to my family or to -“ she swallows, “to his family, would you have pursued me?”

“Yes.” He says it without hesitation, taking her hand in his and twining their fingers together. “He could have been my brother and I would have pursued you. Because you were meant for me and I for you.”

This kiss is slower, but as Rio rises above her and settles in between her legs, Beth just feels excitement. He’s her _husband_. This is their first time together, truly married. Inside of a church, blessed by a priest.

But instead of joining them together, Rio simply continues to kiss her.

She turns her head. “Rio,” she murmurs his name, hoping that he understands what she wants. Instead, he pulls away from her entirely. She reaches out to grab onto him, but he just shushes her before lowering his head to kiss between her breasts, then a little lower.

It’s not until he descends below her belly button that she grows worried.

“Rio!” she hisses.

He looks up at her even as he presses his lips even lower. “Yes?”

“What are you doing?” 

He grins. “Do you remember,” he says, pushing her knees apart, “telling me what you heard from the maids? About how there are other things a man can do to get his pleasure?”

Beth nods.

“It’s true for women as well.”

Her eyes must look like full moons as she stares down at him, then hastily tries to close her legs. But Rio is quicker and his hands grab her thighs and hold them open. 

“That’s not true,” she tries to insist.

Rio just kisses her again, this time barely an inch above the spot where - 

He licks her and Beth squeaks. He presses his lips lower still and his tongue strokes over her entrance lightly, then again a little harder.

“Rio,” Beth tries to push at his head, “you mustn’t.”

“No?” He seems far too amused as he sets his fingers over that spot and starts to press and tease her. “Why not?”

“It isn’t right!”

“How do you know that?” he asks.

Beth opens her mouth to reply, but Rio is not one to play fair and he buries his mouth between her thighs. He pushes his tongue inside of her and Beth nearly flies off the bed. It’s only Rio’s hands that keep her in place - one on her leg, gently petting her thigh, and the other holding her open for his lips and tongue.

Nothing has ever felt like it. Beth is worried that she’s losing her mind and Rio adjusts his position a little, seeming to settle in to torture her with his mouth.

He chuckles at one point when Beth, arching her back and gasping, actually grabs onto the back of his head.

“Oh!” Beth cries out, snatching her hand away. “I didn’t mean to -”

He slips a finger inside of her and curls it. “I liked it,” he assures her.

Beth keeps meaning to push him away, remind him that what he’s doing has nothing to do with the act of procreation and is very likely forbidden, but every time she thinks that she’s managed to gather the strength to do it, Rio does something to make her thrash and moan under him.

He brings her to her peak like that and when she’s whimpering in pleasure, he rises up from between her thighs to claim her mouth in a kiss.

There’s a slightly different taste to his kiss and Beth’s cheeks burn with the knowledge that it’s because of her. 

When he pushes inside of her, she squeezes his shoulders and wraps her legs around him.

After they make love again, Rio curls himself around her and dozes off.

Beth wants to fall asleep with him, but knows she can’t risk it.

She starts to slide away and Rio’s arms tighten around her.

“I have to go,” she says.

“No,” Rio bites her lip, “I won’t let you.”

Beth shivers as her husband curves his hand around her shoulder and nudges her back onto the bed.

“You’re my wife,” he says, as if Beth will have forgotten already.

“We need to plan,” Beth tries to remind him. They’d agreed to this. Beth would go back to her parents’ house while Rio ensured that things were in place to deal with the fallout of their actions.

“We’ll plan together.” He kisses her, hand sliding down to cup her breast. “After all, my wife is very clever.”

“And my husband is a fool if he doesn’t understand why this is necessary,” Beth retorts. “Rio, I have to go back home.”

He shakes his head. “This is your home,” he says. “That is simply a house where you have to stay a few more nights.”

Beth relaxes. He’s going to take her back. Even if he doesn’t want to. “A few nights so that I can spend the rest of them with you,” she promises.

That makes him smile. “You can give these rooms a woman’s touch,” he says, squeezing her before letting go to roll onto his back. “And there’s your chambers as well. Although,” he amends, “you will not be sleeping in those.”

Beth laughs, glad that they’re back to teasing. “No?” She presses against his side. “Not even if I snore very loudly?”

“Not even then.”

“What if I prefer the bed in those chambers?”

“Then we’ll move it in here,” Rio tells her. “Or sleep in there.”

Beth pinks at the implication that he refuses to let her sleep alone.

“Rio,” she says, “you say that now, but wait until I enter confinement and -“

He cuts her off with a groan and a kiss. “Then I’ll never let you out of my sight,” he promises with a firm stare.

“It isn’t right!”

Rio scoffs. “According to whom? I don’t care. I’ll continue to stay with my wife even then.”

Beth’s embarrassment doesn’t fade and Rio knows it. He smiles again and rubs his nose against hers. “You’ll be even more beautiful like that,” he says. “With our child inside of you.”

She looks away, but he draws her face back towards his.

“It isn’t polite,” she says.

“Then we will be impolite,” Rio answers. “Because I will tell everyone in sight how beautiful my wife is.”

She giggles, but the mood sobers as he prepares to return her to her parents’ house.

“Soon we’ll be together,” he promises, giving her one last goodnight kiss.

————————————————————

The morning of her wedding, Beth wakes up with a pit of dread in her belly. She hasn’t seen or heard from Rio - from her _husband_ \- since their wedding. It’s been days.

She knows that at any minute, women will pour in to help her prepare for her wedding. She wants to cry.

At the creak of the door, Beth tenses, only to relax when she sees Ruby.

Ruby hands Beth a note. Unmarked, but opening it, she can tell immediately that it’s from Rio.

_Trust me._

That’s all it says. She looks at Ruby. “This is all?”

Her best friend nods, but reaches out to squeeze her hand. “He loves you,” she says firmly. “Besides, it’s not like you can actually marry Dean.”

Beth blinks. “What?”

“You’re already married,” Ruby whispers, “by a priest, in front of witnesses, in a church. It doesn’t matter if they try to force you to. You can’t legally be married again.”

Beth laughs, although it isn’t exactly funny.

“I’m frightened,” she admits.

Ruby smiles. “It will be alright.”

That’s all they have a chance to say before Beth’s mother pushes into the room and the madness begins in truth.

She is moved this way and that, scrubbed and brushed like she’s one of the horses in the stable.

The dress is heavy. The cloth is practically a jewel itself, there’s so many sewn to it. It’s ludicrous. Beth wants to rip it off. 

“You look stunning,” her mother says, obviously proud.

Beth feels a measure of guilt at those words. Her mother was not present at her wedding. If she refuses to accept Beth’s choices, there will be even more than she won’t be present for. Beth swallows back her sadness.

All she can do is hope.

Trust Rio as he’d asked her to.

The trip to the church is spent in near constant dread. What if Rio doesn’t appear? What will happen when the priest marries them? She is already married.

She is pale as she’s escorted into the cathedral and led to the altar, where Dean is waiting.

She’s glad of the veil because it’s covering her worry and fear. What does she say when the priest turns to her? How does she say no? Will they listen to her?

Whatever the priest is saying is like a buzz in her ears.

Beth feels as though her body is clammy and her mouth is dry. She is going to faint, she thinks.

Her breathing speeds up, her whole body frozen by the hundreds of pairs of eyes on her.

The cathedral doors open. Loudly.

Everyone glances towards them, ready to reproach the latecomer for making noise upon their arrival.

It’s him.

Beth can breathe again.

Rio strides down the aisle of the church. There are gasps of shock from all around, shouts of outrage that fade when they realize who’s standing next to him.

When they reach the altar, Beth bows to the cardinal, lifting her veil and leaning forward to kiss his ring.

“Rise, my child,” the cardinal says. He’s curt, but not unkind to her, but when he turns to the bishop, any hint of warmth disappears. “She cannot be married to this man.”

Dean steps forward. “What?” He seems to realize how rude he’s been, bowing and apologizing.

The bishop is confused.

Beth meets Rio’s eyes. They’re cold as he surveys the gathered families. She sees her parents and Dean’s parents rushing up as well, each greeting the cardinal properly.

“Forgive me, your Grace,” Beth’s father says, “what do you mean she cannot be married?”

“Because she has already been married,” the cardinal announces, not quietly.

The shock ripples through the cathedral.

“To His Grace, the Duke Velasquez.”

There is silence at that. No one knows how to react.

“What?” several people eventually say.

The cardinal nods to Rio, who reaches into his jacket and pulls out a paper, which he hands to the cardinal.

“I have here their certificate of marriage.”

“This is a lie,” Beth’s father nearly shouts. “He has concocted this to shame my family, to prevent the Marks and Boland families from joining.”

The cardinal raises a grey eyebrow. “You accuse me of lying?”

“Of course not,” Beth’s father turns placating. “I am sure that you are operating in good faith. I think that the duke is lying.”

“Ask your daughter.” Rio says it quietly, but somehow it cuts through everything else. Heads whip towards her, eyes confused and pitying.

“Come here, Elizabeth,” her mother beckons her forward. Beth moves a little closer, but doesn’t dare stand too close to her parents. She has no idea how they will respond. Instead, she stands by the cardinal. “Tell the cardinal that this is a fraud.”

Beth takes a deep breath and lifts her head. “I cannot lie to a man of God.”

All of the blood drains from her mother’s face. “No,” she whispers.

Beth turns to the cardinal. “The marriage is valid and -“ she hesitates, but forces herself to add, “it was consummated.”

“Whore!” Dean steps towards her, but Rio’s in his way, shoving him aside.

“There will be no violence in the church!” the cardinal commands, but Rio looks ready to kill Dean. “Nor will there be a wedding. Bigamy is against the laws of God and as His representative here, I will not allow it to happen.”

There’s dozens of conversations happening all around them at once, but Beth catches the movement of her father towards her in the corner of her eye and she steps back.

“I will speak to my daughter,” he tells the cardinal, who nods. “Alone.”

“No, you will not,” Rio says. “This concerns more than you.”

“And it does not concern you,” her father tries to protest, but the cardinal raises his hand before Rio can push back.

“Let us retire to a more private location.”

To her relief, the cardinal seems to mean only her parents, Rio, and her. Dean is furious at being kept out, but he’ll be furious about plenty by the time that the day is done. Beth can’t bring herself to care.

The cardinal and bishop both take seats first, then Rio is crowding her into a chair as well.

“You look like you’re about to drop,” he tells her quietly. He sets his hand on her shoulder. “Do you need something to eat or drink?” When she shakes her head, he frowns, but he must want this over with because he doesn’t push it.

“So it’s true,” her father says when the cardinal gestures for them to begin.

“How could you?” Beth’s mother hisses. “You ungrateful -“

Rio interrupts her. “You will not address my wife like that.” His voice is cold. Commanding.

Her mother is nearly shaking with rage. “She is my daughter.”

“From the moment that our marriage was consummated, her loyalties came to rest with me,” Rio replies, straightening up. “As did her care.”

“Lies,” her father says.

Beth extends her hand to rest on Rio’s arm. He softens slightly as he looks over at her. He swallows and turns back to her parents.

“Your daughter loves you and would have you in her life. In our lives. The lives of our children.” Her mother gasps. “For that reason, I am willing to overlook everything that you have said, everything that your family has done to mine.”

“And what of the things your family has done to ours?” her father thunders.

Rio straightens. “Are you forgetting that we were told to cease our fighting? I am proposing that we find a way to move past it and to join our families together. Your grandchildren will have my blood. Will you try to kill them?”

Beth’s mother, her hand over her stomach, shakes her head. “You can’t take her from me!”

“And yet you would have sent her to live with Boland?” Rio scoffs, then relaxes a fraction. “I have no intention of preventing you from visiting our home or Elizabeth from visiting yours, once I’m sure that you aren’t going to try and hide her away. This does not need to be decided today. I am sure that you need time to consider.”

“Consider? Consider what?” Her father is practically shaking with rage, his face turning red. “Now a deal has been broken with the Boland family.”

“Who, while wealthy, is small,” Rio reminds him calmly. “They command very little loyalty. I will not allow them to retaliate against you for the broken engagement.”

He extends his hand to Beth and helps her up out of the chair. “In the meantime, I’m taking Elizabeth home. You can send her things or I’ll have someone fetch them.”

“Beth!”

She turns to look at her mother, who rushes to her and hugs her tightly. Surprised, Beth lets go of Rio’s hand to return the embrace. “Are you in danger?”

Beth softens. “No, Mama.”

They part. Her mother nods. “I’ll pay a call tomorrow. With your things.”

That’s all they have the chance to say before her father starts raging and Rio takes her away.

——————————————

Rio’s excitement is palpable as they eat dinner with his mother, who is dealing with this shockingly well.

“It was time for him to settle down,” she tells Beth after she forces her son to leave them alone. “I cannot say that I thought he would choose someone from your family, but -“ she trails off. “Perhaps it is a good way to make sure that the resentment and hatred die.”

Beth nods her head.

“Are you with child?”

“Pardon?” Beth says, slightly strangled.

Rio’s mother meets her eye. “My son is not as discrete as he thinks he is. I was aware that he had a woman visiting his rooms. Even caught a glimpse of her myself one night. You had not yet put up your hood. Is that why you married?”

“No!” Beth replies. “Well, I don’t know if I am. But we had already agreed to marry when -“ she can’t make herself say it to her mother-in-law.

“A gamble,” the older woman comments. “He could have been lying.”

Beth straightens up and she lifts her chin. “Rio is the most honourable man that I have ever met. I trust him.”

Rio’s mother studies Beth, then nods. “You’ll do.” From there, she’s warmer towards Beth. When Rio returns, she says something to her son that makes him laugh before pulling Beth up from the couch.

“If you say so, mother,” he drawls. “My wife has had a tiring day, I should see her to bed.”

His mother laughs. “I have serious doubts that you will allow the girl to sleep,” she says.

Beth’s cheeks turn pink at the implication. Rio just grins.

“You did ask for grandchildren,” he drawls, kissing his mother’s head before dragging Beth away.

Like the other times that Beth has been in his rooms, she is quickly rid of her clothing, her bare skin pressing against Rio’s. Her husband’s. He undoes the pins and braids in her hair until it’s falling down around her head.

As they stand by the bed, kissing, Beth starts to squirm, waiting for him to take her to bed. She can feel his cock, hard, pressing against her belly, but he makes no movement to lift her onto his bed like he had before.

“What is it?” Rio asks, his hand curving over her shoulder.

Beth looks up at him. “Aren’t we going to -“ she glances at the bed.

He grins. “Do you want me to take you to bed? Is that what you’re asking me, wife?”

She glares at him.

“It isn’t necessary to do it in a bed,” he says, the hand on her shoulder dipping down to cup her breast. “On the chair, perhaps?”

She shivers.

“I could take you by the fire, if you’re cold,” he goes on, pinching her nipple. “Would you like that?”

“I -“ her voice comes out as a croak. She doesn’t know what she wants. “The bed,” she says. “For now.”

He wraps his arms around her and lifts her so that her feet don’t touch the floor as he carries her to the bed.

They kiss as he sets her head on a pillow.

His hand comes down to trace the necklace that he gave to her in order to mark his promise. “You’re mine,” he says, “all mine.”

It doesn’t take long for him to push inside of her, though his movements are languid, slow. They are not in a rush to get Beth back to her bedroom before dawn.

She learns how drawn out the act can be. How much teasing she can stand. How little Rio can. She barely has a chance to take the tip of his cock in her mouth before he’s cursing and rolling her to her back.

And when she settles in Rio’s arms to stay for the first time, Beth feels so happy that she doesn’t think she’ll be able to sleep. But the second that her eyelids slip shut, she falls into a deep contented sleep.

——————————————————

Seated across from her mother, Beth barely stops herself from fidgeting.

“I asked to speak to you alone because I wanted to be sure,” her mother says. “I want you to tell me the truth and I did not know if your husband would allow that.”

“He would,” Beth says. “He wishes to know you as well.”

Her mother looks surprised. “He does?”

“He wants our families to move on from the past,” Beth reaches out and takes her mother’s hands, “and for there to be peace between them.”

“Is that why you married him? To avert a feud?”

Beth shakes her head. “I love him. And he loves me.”

“Men lie, Elizabeth,” her mother says. “How can you be sure?”

Beth flushes. “Because he married me. After we -“

“Elizabeth!” her mother gasps, pulling her hands out from under Beth’s. “I thought that I taught you better.”

“And yet you told me that I should allow Dean liberties since we were betrothed,” Beth reminds her.

“There were agreements in place,” her mother hisses under her breath, apparently remembering that Rio had insisted on a chaperone being present. “And I said not to let him inside of you. Are you with child?”

“If she is,” Beth looks up to see her mother-in-law sweeping into the room, “it is my grandchild and I will not allow a word to be said against the child nor the mother.”

Beth’s mother glares at Rio’s mother.

“I had Rio at the end of my first year of marriage,” she says, taking a seat across from them, a slight boast in her tone. “The men of the family are extremely virile.”

Beth wants to run out of the room.

“Mother,” Rio’s voice comes from the doorway, “I believe I said to leave them to it.”

“No!” Beth turns her head towards him. “Our need for privacy is finished with.” She stands up. “Join us.”

Rio approaches the trio of women like he’s approaching a skittish horse, but takes Beth’s hand and pulls her to a couch that allows them to sit side by side and see their mothers.

“Well,” Beth’s mother says, her voice shaking slightly, “I suppose I should get to know my daughter’s husband and his family a little better.”

That night, as they lie next to the fire, she plays with Rio’s fingers, tracing the length of them, running her own over the veins on the back of his hand. Even though they’ve just finished, his cock twitches against her hip.

“Don’t stop,” he tells her, sounding sleepy.

“No?” Beth smiles into his chest.

He hums. “It feels nice.”

“Our mothers seemed to get along well enough.”

“That feels less nice,” Rio grumbles. “Now they’ll both badger us.”

Beth groans. “My mother asked me if I’m with child and your mother swooped in to say that if I am, it is her grandchild. Apparently she had you in the first year of marriage.”

“She did,” Rio says.

“I suppose that means that I’m expected to do the same,” Beth muses, still touching Rio’s hands.

He chuckles. “I think we’re both doing our part to ensure that happens. But,” he moves suddenly, pushing her over onto her back and hovering over her, “perhaps we should try again. Just in case.”

Beth giggles, though the sound is cut off by Rio’s kiss.

——————————————————————

Beth lifts her skirt and chases after the shrieking toddler as they both laugh.

“I’m going to catch you!” she warns.

“No!” Anthony cries, making a beeline for the courtyard.

Beth picks up her pace. She doesn’t want him racing into the courtyard. There are always people coming and going and -

“Anthony!” she calls out. “Stop right now!”

He doesn’t, keeps running and running until Rio steps into the hall, just back from his visit to his estates it seems, crouching to catch their youngest and hoist him up.

“Papa!” Anthony shouts, reaching out to grab Rio’s face.

Rio laughs. “Are you causing trouble?”

“No,” Anthony says as Rio carries him towards Beth. “Mama was.”

“Is that so?” Rio hums, grinning at Beth. “You were causing trouble?”

She rolls her eyes, but presents her lips for his greeting. He kisses her briefly, then straightens up.

“Where’s Marcus?” he asks. Their firstborn had, as predicted by Rio’s mother, been born during their first year of marriage. Scarcely nine months after their wedding, in fact.

Beth gives him a look. “You will not interrupt his lessons, Rio.”

“How many lessons does the boy need?” Rio scoffs, making faces for Anthony.

“You can play with me and Mama,” Anthony tells his father.

Rio meets her eye and this time, his grin is more hot than it is amused. “I do enjoy playing with your mama,” Rio agrees. She scowls. “What are we playing?”

Later, after dinner and once their sons had been put to bed, Rio drags her to their room. “I missed you this morning,” he says as he holds her face in position to receive his kisses.

Beth strokes the length of his cock. “That’s what happens when you go somewhere so early.”

He groans. “I went early so that I could be back early. And I didn’t want to wake you, you’ve been tired.”

Beth hums, letting go of Rio and sitting on the edge of their bed, parting her legs for him. He takes the invitation without hesitation, pressing into her with a groan.

“I think it’s a girl this time,” she tells him.

Rio freezes, halfway inside of her. “You’re -“

Beth nods.

He grins, pushing the rest of the way in. “A girl, then,” he says, kissing her. “I’d like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you to medievalraven and neveroffanon for indulging me and beta-ing this. I hope you enjoy it! If there's content that should be warned for, please let me know.
> 
> Title from Romeo & Juliet.


End file.
